Ion Antonescu

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Ion Victor Antonescu
Ion Antonescu portrait.jpg
Ion Antonescu
Prime Minister of Romania
In office
September 4, 1940 – August 23, 1944
Preceded byIon Gigurtu
Succeeded byConstantin Sănătescu
Conducător of Romania
In office
September 6, 1940 – August 23, 1944
Preceded byCarol II (as King of Romania)
Succeeded byNone
Personal details
Born
Ion Victor Antonescu

June 15, 1882
Piteşti, Romania
DiedJune 1, 1946(1946-06-01) (aged 63)
Jilava, Romania
NationalityRomanian
Political partyNone, formally allied with the Iron Guard
Spouse(s)Raşela Mendel (div.)
Maria Antonescu
ProfessionSoldier
Military service
RankField Marshal

Ion Victor Antonescu (15 June 1882 – 1 June 1946) was a Nazi-allied Prime Minister of Romania, who called himself Conducător and ruled from 4 September 1940[1] until 23 August 1944,[2] when he was toppled in a coup. He was executed for war crimes in 1946.[3]

Role in the Holocaust

When he was in charge of Romania and southern Ukraine, he actively facilitated the Holocaust for Nazi Germany.[4] At his order, as many as 400,000 Jewish people were killed.

The 1941 Odessa massacre killed as many as 100,000 Jews and reduced Odessa's Jews by 98.7%. Some consider the Odessa massacre as the worst massacre of Jews in the Romanian-occupied zone during WWII.[5]

The Holocaust in Romanian-occupied zone only stopped after he[who?] was toppled in a coup led by King Michael I of Romania on 23 August 1944.[6]

Ion Antonescu Media

Related pages

References

    • International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. Final Report. President of the commission: Elie Wiesel. Edited by Tuvia Friling, Radu Ioanid, and Mihail E. Ionescu. Iași: Polirom, 2004.
    • Ioanid, Radu. The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Roma under the Antonescu Regime, 1940–1944. Second edition. Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.
    • Kruglov, Aleksander, and Kiril Feferman. “Bloody Snow: The Mass Slaughter of Odessa Jews in Berezovka Uezd in the First Half of 1941.” Yad Vashem Studies 47, no. 2 (2019): 15.
    • Solonari, Vladimir. A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019.
    • Zipperstein, Steven J. The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History, 1794–1881. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985.
  1. *Murder of the Jews of Romania. Yad Vashem. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  2. *World War II – 60 Years After: Former Romanian Monarch Remembers Decision To Switch Sides. Radio Liberty (May 6, 2005). Retrieved October 22, 2024.